Croatian consortium Porto Jadera 1177 has ambitious plans for Marina Zadar
Multiple interested parties are competing to win the coveted 30-year concession contract for Marina Zadar, one of them being a Croatian consortium named Porto Jadera 1177, reported Večernji list on December 26, 2017.
Porto Jadera 1177 is planning to invest 100 million kuna in the marina located in Jazine bay, between the peninsula that houses the Old Town and the mainland. The interested investors seem to have quite an attractive renovation plan: a large floating island would be installed in the bay, connected to the mainland by an undersea tunnel installed at a depth of four to seven metres. Visitors would thus have an experience similar to being in a submarine, and walking through the tunnel would enable them to explore the seabed on their way to the nearby underwater restaurant, first of its kind in Croatia.
Apart from being an attraction in itself, the floating island would also serve a pragmatic purpose, standing as a breakwater that would solve the ongoing problem the marina has been experiencing thus far: waves created by northern winds, tramontana and maestral.
The island would also add to the tourist offer: it would be named Pope's Island after Pope Alexander II who visited the city of Jadera (former name for Zadar) in 1177 - hence the name of the consortium. The island would house a memorial centre, built and managed in collaboration with the Archaeological and Maritime Museum of Zadar.
The marina currently disposes of 230 wet berths, a number that would get reduced by 10% after reconstruction. The investors are planning to build new infrastructure that would enable the facility to host large ships and megayachts.
"We have a vision of building the first entirely ecological and 'green' marina in Croatia. It would be powered by the sun, the wind and the tide; it's an entirely original concept of nautical tourism", said Hrvoje Panjol of Porto Jadera 1177. "The most important thing is making the attractions accessible to people of Zadar and their guests. At the moment, the access to the marina is limited; until a few years ago, it was forbidden to pass through the area. We want to remove all the fences and barriers, as we view the marina as a new public space created for all citizens to use. A smaller city within a city!", Panjol concluded.
Take a look at the concept in the video below:
